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Abortion

The Biblical Activist: An Interview with Wendy Wright

"In Proverbs 24, it states that we should rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death. Don't stand back as they are led to the slaughter. So that would apply quite strongly to abortion. Unborn children are human beings who are being led to the slaughter and we should try to rescue them."

Wendy Wright is president of Concerned Women for America, the largest public policy women's organization in the country. The group's main goal is to bring biblical principles to the legislative decision-making process through "prayer, education and action." One of the core issues for CWA and Wright, a conservative evangelical Christian, is promoting "the sanctity of life" (or opposing abortion).

What are your views on abortion?

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Wendy Wright: Very simply, abortion kills a child. It harms women, it denies men the ability to protect their child, it strips siblings of their brother or sister. Overall, it's quite damaging to people. And, of course, God is the one who creates each one of us and abortion is a violation of the command not to murder another.

You mentioned God. Could you tell me more about the religious beliefs that inform your position on abortion?

The Bible is quite clear that God created us, that he formed us in the womb and decided the purpose for our lives before we were born. The first person that recognized the messiah was an unborn child--John the Baptist, in his mother Elizabeth's womb, jumped when Mary came. So it's quite clear in the Bible that unborn children are human beings and that God treats them the same as other human beings, as those who are already born.

How do these views influence your political activism and your work with Concerned Women for America?

In Proverbs 24, it states that we should rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to death. Don't stand back as they are led to the slaughter. So that would apply quite strongly to abortion. Unborn children are human beings who are being led to the slaughter and we should try to rescue them.

We work to make the laws conform with morality, to bring biblical principles into public policy. In a practical manner, we work not only on legislation but also on cultural issues. We have national office in Washington, D.C., we have state chapters, we have prayer action chapters--about 600 of those. Today, for example, they will pray about legislation and then they'll contact their congressmen about the legislation. The state chapters deal with state legislative issues and our national office deals with Congress, the White House, and we also work on the international level. We'll meet with congressmen and their staff to try to promote legislation that respects the sanctity of human life.

Would you like to see Roe v. Wade overturned?

Roe v. Wade is really only one aspect of it. Abortion has been simplified as if Roe v. Wade is the only issue. Most people don't even know what Roe v. Wade said or did; they're not aware of how extreme it is. So in a simplified manner, yes, we don't want the law that says abortion can occur throughout all nine months. So, yes, Roe v. Wade is immoral. It is unconstitutional. It should be overturned, but that's not the only goal. If Roe is overturned, it will just throw the issue back to all 50 states, so then each state is going to decide whether or not it is going to protect unborn children. So overturning Roe will multiply our need to be involved because we'll each have to be involved in our own states.